This morning I colored the January mandala in Daybook of My Personal Faith and in a few days will catch up with February’s. It was titled “Step by Step” and really explained how I sometimes get from point “a” to point “b,” or how I get a discipline started, or even how I get a book read on time. And then the mandala itself showed steps.
This morning because of earlier reading I had already been thinking of different economic models of living, and of being a witness to what I believe in, and along with step by step, it just all meshed together.
It was a wonderful time. I used colored pencils, primarily because I thought that markers would bleed through to the other side of the page. And I found that the colored pencils had a quiet meditative feel to them. And to my surprise I could vary the background and make a sort of shady part. I used coloring the mandala as my meditation time, and breathed differently afterwards.
I was thinking afterwards that sometimes I approach some thing as if there are rules about it—when really you can make up your own rules. And I think that’s true of coloring mandalas. You can think deep thoughts. You can pray. You can just enjoy the beauty of what you’re doing.
There was one year where I started with a circle and I drew my own mandala—in fact that’s where the mandalas in this book came from. Sometimes they had a meaning. Sometimes they didn’t.
Try coloring a mandala yourself. It’s time well spent. Relax and enjoy.
